Family Therapy: A Systemic Integration

by Dorothy Stroh Becvar, Raphael J. Becvar

A comprehensive, user-friendly guide to marriage and family therapy that takes a holistic view to look at people within the context of their environment.

 

Family Therapy helps students understand the process of shifting from an individual psychology paradigm to a cybernetic or systems paradigm. The text is divided into three sections: "The Systemic Framework," "The Practice of Family Therapy," and "The Systemic Practitioner,” and it includes historical information, current developments, and ongoing debates.

 

Various family and developmental theories are examined. The family therapy models considered include psychodynamic, natural systems, experiential, structural, communications, strategic, behavioral/cognitive, and several post-modern approaches. Assessment, intervention, training and supervision, research, and epistemological challenges are discussed within the context of practice.

 

Learning Goals

Upon completing this book readers will be able to:

Describe and compare various family therapy models Discuss practical applications for different family and developmental theories Review and assess unique family systems to determine the appropriate family therapy model Understand how concepts with the same name differ in meaning at different levels (i.e. 1st order versus 2nd order cybernetics)

Genres: Psychology, Grad School

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Bernard Ingram]

Sorry, but this was an extremely tedious read. While systems theory or cybernetics is admittedly eclectic, I found the writing to be somewhat highbrow and overly complex. I had to resort to other sources just to figure out what the writers were trying to say. Sometimes the analogies the writers used made the concepts even more confusing.

Furthermore, list upon list of ambiguous terminology are provided without proper definitions to explain what the writers mean when using it, with a lot of repetition throughout the book as if they themselves are not sure how to explain the concepts. You have to be kind of in the loop already to make any sense of any of it. In fact, some YouTube videos manage to fit more information into 5 minutes than you'll get in an entire 30 page chapter.

In summary, an extremely frustrating read. I've since read other academic writers writing on the same subject matter. More or less everybody else did a better job at explaining systems theory.

Obviously the writers know their stuff but they certainly didn't do a very good job of dumbing down this complex field for students. Especially the chapter titled "The Historical Perspective" could've done with a massive edit to shorten it. It was by far the longest and most pointless chapter in the book. I simply couldn't see why they felt they had to put their readers through that kind of torture.

Honestly, who cares who did what and who knew who?

If I were ever in such a position that I had to decide on a prescribed book, this would not be one of them. With all due respect to the authors, who are obviously learned, get a new editor and cut about 40% of the text out of this book.

[Meghan]

I'm keeping this book on my shelf because my professor said it's a great resource for the LMFT exam, but the Becvars don't write in the most comprehensive style, especially when getting into the details of a Postmodernist approach and "cybernetics of cybernetics."
As recommended by the same professor, I simultaneously read "Systems Theory in Action" by Shelly Smith-Acuña, and that helped my understanding immensely.

[Dr. Johnson]

I did not appreciate the book, in order to truly grasp the concepts I had to seek other references. I did appreciate the boundary systems and attachment theories sections.

In general, they said a lot in multiple paragraphs, that could have been summarized in a few sentences.

[Sásha Marie]

I can guarantee, i will never refer to this book once in my practice. It has unecessarily complex clinical wording that has double meanings and required me to look at other sources for true explanations and understanding. It is as if the authors tried to bridge the gap between philosophy and science, which can be beautiful but this was a written disaster. Institutions need not require this reading material if they would like to produce real marriage and family therapist who can UNDERSTAND and APPLY theory.

[Sásha Marie]

I'll buy it to have on the shelf for licensure prep... but come on! Seriously too complex and unnecessarily wordy.

[Candace]

I decided I might as well count my textbooks in my reading lists.

[Heather]

One of the best textbooks I've read.

[Kris]

A little dry, but I enjoyed that conversational tone used throughout the book.